Designer Detective (A Fiona Marlowe Mystery) (18 page)

“What about the woman?”

“What woman?”

“Don’t play dumb. The one at the door when you
answered at my place just a little bit ago.”

“You wouldn’t believe me, if I told you. It’s a
long, messy story.”

“Is her name Alice?”

He didn’t answer.

“Did she work with Albert?”

He looked away.

“Did she and Albert have a thing going?”

He looked back. “What do you mean thing?”

Then it dawned on me. “Alice and Albert had
more than one thing going, didn’t they? They were lovers, but Alice is also connected
to the rifles.”

“Like I said, you know too much. I’m not a
killer, Fiona, but the people I do business with believe in murder. I should
let you go right now, but . . .”

He still gripped my arms. We weren’t a foot
apart. He pulled me to him and lowered his head like he was going to kiss me. What
was with these cowboys? I wondered what they did when there was nothing but
cattle as far as the eye could see. Was the fool out of his mind? He already
admitted he was, but I wasn’t in the mood for his shenanigans and wrenched to
the side. He tried to nuzzle my neck.
 

I pushed my hands against his chest. “Cody,
stop right now. It’s too early in the day.”

“Never too early.”

I struggled but he pinned me against his chest.

“You’re too young for me,” I said.

“I never knew there was an age limit on what
we’re doing.”

“I have a communicable disease.”

“Me, too.”

That was alarming.

“You are not in your right mind. Did anyone
ever tell you that?”

“Yes.”

I kept turning away from his attempts to plant
his mouth on mine.
 

“Cody, stop this right now.”

“But you smell so good. I don’t want to stop.
You turn me on, Fiona, have I told you that?”

 
In tense
moments like this the hero should come to the rescue. Where was Jake when I
needed him? That reminded me that I was the one who told him to look me up
later. He had taken my advice and left me to my own devices which were mighty
slim. My keen ears picked a scuffling commotion and then a car door slammed.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Help.”
I shouted as
loud as I could.
“Help.”

A head of white hair bobbed between cars. It
was the little old man I had passed on the elevator.

Cody put his hand over my mouth.

“Fiona, shut up. People will think I’m trying
to rape you. I just wanted a little kiss.”

The old man turned and ran toward the stairs.
Big help he was.

Cody laughed. “I guess we scared him off.
Really, Fiona, you should enjoy this. Don’t you think I’m a sexy guy?”

I kept mumbling into his hand, trying to tell
him to remove his slimy hand from my mouth and get lost.

“I’ll take my hand away, if you promise to
quiet down.”

I nodded once, and he inched away his hand.

“You are an idiot.” I hissed and sputtered.
“Don’t you dare put your hand over my mouth
again.
Let
me go. Get your nasty hands off my person.
And sexy?
You and Godzilla.”

Cody gave me a lopsided grin. “Fiona, you don’t
understand. I’m in a bit of a bind here. I need to disappear. That guy up there
expects me to get rid of you, as in permanently delete. But I want to get away
from him, so I thought we could disappear together. I was trying to warm you up
to the idea. Wouldn’t you like to escape to a desert island with me?”

“No.
Absolutely, not.
I’m perfectly capable of disappearing on my own, and you would be the last
person with whom I’d escape to a desert island.”

“Fiona, you hurt me to my heart. I’m doing you
a good turn here. I’m supposed to be getting rid of you.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Cody.” I did
not want to think about being permanently deleted.

“I’m afraid you are. Isn’t this your car? I
recognize the dents on the door. C’mon. We’re getting out of here.”

“What about Alice?”

“She took off. Open the car.”

At least we had action. As I pulled the keys
from my purse, he snatched them before I had a chance to take control of the
situation. Gripping my arm, he steered me to the passenger’s side.

“Let me go, you sorry-excuse-for-a-cowboy. I
hope this isn’t abduction. I told you I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Get in and shut up. Lord, woman, you can talk
a man to death.” He yanked opened the door, shoved me onto the seat, and slammed
the door. I turned to see where he was going. As he walked around the back of
the car, an arm snaked out and grabbed him from behind. At the end of the arm
was my hero, Jake, who lifted Cody into the air and slammed him against the
trunk of my beautiful, battered car. Jake proceeded to punch Cody around like a
rag doll.

Opal appeared at my side of the car with the
old gentleman from the elevator.

“Fiona,” she said, “are you all right? We heard
the shouting but we didn’t know where the noise was coming from. The sound ricochets
around these walls. This kind gentleman told us about a woman down here in
trouble, and we came looking, afraid it was you. Cody didn’t hurt you, did he?”

I got out of the car. “My stars, am I glad to
see you. What are you doing here? I thought Jake’s cowboy buddies were coming
for you.”

“They’re waiting in the lobby. We saw the man
who was with Cody in front of the building, but there wasn’t any woman. Are you
sure you saw a woman in the hall, Fiona?”

I was ecstatic they hadn’t abandoned me and hugged
her to express my gratitude. “Yes, Alice was around here somewhere, but she
took off according to Cody.”

 
Cody was
gasping, flat out on the ground. Jake stood over him, sucking air himself. He
limped over to me.

“Are you all right? He didn’t, did he?”

I shook my head. “No, he didn’t. He was merely
trying to abduct me. You don’t look so good
.”

“Son
of a bitch,” Jake said and pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. “The
bastard drew blood.”

“Let me see,” said Opal. She examined Jake’s
lip and pulled hand sanitizer from her purse. “It’s the only thing I have but
it’ll stop the bleeding.”

Jake nodded and dabbed his lip.

“You were going to leave without us,” he said
to me.

“Cody thought the two of us needed to disappear
together. It seems his customers don’t like that you and I know about the
rifles. Apparently, Cody’s in some kind of trouble with them and thought to do
a disappearing act of his own. I appreciate your success in finding me.”

Cody tried to sit up. Jake placed a big booted
foot on his chest to hold him down.

“What the hell were you doing?” he said to
Cody.

“We were exchanging pleasantries,” he said and
touched his jaw. “Damn, you still got a mean punch, Jake.”

“You mean you two have been in fights before?”
I said, looking from one to the other. “The Wild West arrives in Virginia.”

Jake nodded. “It’s usually not over a woman.”

“I see. You’re caught in another of Cody’s
messes.”

“This is another in a long line of messes.”

I took the few steps necessary to stand before
Jake. “What does that mean?”

Jake met my eyes. One cheek had a nasty red
welt across it. His lip was puffy. His eyes were sad dog brown.

“Cody and some of his buddies were rustling
cattle at the ranch. We caught them. Opal didn’t turn them in, just gave them a
warning. It turned out Cody was the one who was opening the gates and helping
them load the calves on trucks. She couldn’t turn them in without turning Cody
in. Opal warned him. There’s a whole list of bad deeds that Opal warned Cody
about. She tried to protect him, hoping he’d wise up.”

Opal stood with pressed lips, looking at Cody.
“I’m afraid the past is catching up with you, Cody. Now it’s arms dealing. That’s
as bad rustling cattle. They used to hang cattle rustlers. What do you have to say
for yourself?”

Cody staggered to his feet and shrugged. “I
didn’t mean
no
harm. What’s a few calves anyway. I had
too much to drink, and, well, things happen.”

The old man spoke up. “You could always parboil
him.”

We looked at the old man, forgotten in all the
excitement.

“They do those things out west, don’t they?”

“Tar and feather,” said Jake.

“I like that idea,” I said and turned to Jake. “What
about Albert and the rifles?”

“Opal wanted me to dog Cody. That’s when I
found out about the rifles. The night Opal locked me in the wine cellar we’d
had an argument over the rifles that I discovered.”

I turned to Opal. “You knew about the weapons
business.”

She nodded. “I do now.”

“That’s all of us,” I said. I turned to Cody. “If
you don’t go straight, we get to parboil you.”

That put a smile on the old man’s face. He saluted
and left for parts unknown, probably exhausted from the Wild West show.

Cody sighed. “I’ll try but I have before and, I
don’t know, something always happens. Right, Opal?”

She nodded. “But I never told you I’d parboil
you. I think Fiona would.” She smiled over at me.

“I’d enjoy it,” I said.

“I’ll help,” said Jake. “I’m tired of ending up
in fist fights with Cody.”

The four of us leaned on the trunk of my car
looking at a panorama of parked cars and inhaling stale exhaust fumes. I was
trying to sort things out.

“What I want to know,” I said, “is who set the fire?”

“Hudson,” said Cody.

“I don’t believe it.”

“He’s the one who stands to gain the most. I hope
he did a good job of it and burned it to the ground.”

“I think your buddies set the fire.”

“Why would they do that?”

“To burn evidence, of course.”

Cody made out like he couldn’t be bothered.
“Rifles don’t burn very good. Besides, the last of the rifles left yesterday.”

I smiled “It wasn’t the rifles. There were
records and checkbooks and other incriminating stuff. I bet they find that the
fire started in Albert’s private study. If they started a good fire, Hudson
would get the money, and you’d get off. I think you planned the fire and had
your buddies do the deed while you got drunk and ended up with us for your
alibi. You coerced Hudson into looking the other way and told him you wanted
part if not all of the insurance money.”

“Why would I do that? Why would Hudson do
anything I’d tell him?”

“You held a gun to his head.”

“Maybe I was able to persuade him it was in
everyone’s best interest.”

“You blackmailed him.”

“Fiona, you better leave well enough alone.”

“No, because you bribed Hudson with something
that is so bad, Hudson went along with your nefarious scheme.”

Cody said nothing but looked at me.

I pressed my advantage. “Where is the rest of
the family in this?”

 
“Albert
and I operated alone. None of the others know.”
 

“That leaves the four of us. We are the only
ones who know about the arms business.”

“Right.
That means
that our lives are in danger because my business associates know that you know.
They have no qualms about silencing people.”

On that ominous note, the stair door from the
lobby banged open, and two lanky cowboys sauntered over to join our sorry
looking group.

“What’s going on?” said one of the cowboys to
Jake. “You okay? We got worried when you didn’t come back. We been looking all
over this
gawd
durn
building for you.”

If that wasn’t enough, the elevator doors
opened and a barrel-chested man in the brown fedora stepped out and looked
around.

Jake leaped into action.

“Boys, take Opal and load her in the rig.” He
nodded toward the stairs.

Cody was already hot footing it for the stairs.

Jake grabbed my bag and steered me by the back
to the stairway door leading up to the lobby. “Keep moving,” he said, pushing
me to the steps. “Keep moving and don’t look back.”

 
The door
closed with a soft
thunk
behind us. He shoved me up
the steps to the lobby.
Outside stood a Texas size truck
parked by the curb.
We all squeezed in. Jake took the wheel and started
the engine.

“You can drop me by the airport on the way to
wherever you’re going,” I said in my most agreeable voice.

“We’re going to Albert’s place,” Jake said.

“Where’s Cody?” I asked. We all looked around.

Cody had disappeared. Unfortunately, he still
had my keys.

A plume of gray smoke was still visible above
the trees. A smell like burning tires penetrated the cab of the truck. But we couldn’t
get close enough to see the Lodge mansion. The street was blocked with rescue
vehicles, a TV van, and cars of the curious. No one had offered to drop me at
the airport even though I had asked politely several times. Jake said he’d drop
me later. He parked the truck half off the road on someone’s manicured lawn.

“You girls stay in the rig. The boys and I will
look things over.”

The girls watched the boys maneuver between
vehicles until they were out of sight. Never one to follow orders, I climbed
out to stretch my legs and get a better view. Opal followed. We craned our
necks trying to see. A plan was forming in my head. If I could divert Opal’s
attention or find someone she could talk to, I could take the truck and be on
my way to the airport. I had no qualms about theft. My morals were beginning to
worry me.

“I wonder where Hudson is,” I said to Opal.